Daughters of the Cross: or Woman's MissionEddy, Daniel C. (Daniel Clarke)
History
Daughters of the Cross: or Woman's Mission
Eddy, Daniel C. (Daniel Clarke)
Women -- Biography; Women missionaries
And such was the effect of the cross on the mind of Mrs. Newell. It sent
her forth in all the love of womanhood, and sustained her until the close
of life, It produced on her the impression that it made upon the dreamer
Bunyan, who saw it as he was escaping from the city of destruction. He came
to it with a heavy heart and a burdened soul; but as he saw it the burden
fell and rolled into the sepulchre, and his load was gone. He gazed with
rapture and delight; and the tears burst forth and flowed down his cheeks,
and joy and holy satisfaction filled his soul.
Here is the great moving motive, one which is above all others, one that is
more effective than all others; and by this our heroine was animated and
cheered in her missionary work.
Up to the time of her departure for India, the mind of Miss Atwood
continued to be exercised with contending feelings. At one time the
sacrifice, the toil, the labor, and self-denial of a missionary life would
rise up before her. She would feel how great the trial must be to leave
all the endeared scenes of youth and childhood, and go forth to toil, and
perhaps die, among strangers in a strange land. Dark visions would often
flit before her; and she felt how terrible it must be to sicken and expire
on shores where no mother's kind hand could lift her anguished head nor
smooth her fevered pillow. But at other times her spirit soared above the
toil and sorrow, and dwelt with rapture upon the bliss, of seeing some of
the poor, degraded heathen females converted to Christ. The glory of the
great enterprise presented itself; and she realized the blessedness of
those who leave father and mother, brother and sister, houses and land, for
the promotion of the kingdom of Christ. From these various struggles
she came forth purified, dead to the world, and alive unto Christ. Any
sacrifice she was willing to make, any toil endure. It was her meat
and drink to do the will of God and accomplish his work. After a full
investigation of all the privations and sacrifices of a missionary life,
after a solemn and prayerful estimate of all that was to be left behind and
all that would be gained, she formed her opinion and decided to go forth. A
feeble woman, just out of childhood, she linked her fate with an unpopular
and scorned enterprise, and cast in her lot with the dark-browed daughters
of India.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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